BOB DYLAN'S FIGGY PUDDING

Life takes some fun turns every once in a while........  We went to see Bob at Jones Beach last night and started chatting to the guy next to us who had sold us the tickets on Stubhub.  He is a journalist,  Duff McDonald, who writes business stuff mostly for Fortune and occasionally for Vanity Fair.  He is also a big Dylan fan and had written an article on Bobby, which was in the April 2009  Vanity Fair edition, and was based on Dylan's DJ-ing on Sirius radio.  Anyway, this morning I was checking him out and read the article, which is fabulous.  I started reading the highlights to Alan,  including some recipes he had apparently read on the show.  One of them was for Figgy Pudding, which, after reading,  I casually added: 'easy to make, I think I have all the ingredients'.  Our Bob Dylan weekend was about to continue!

You have to scroll down in the article to find the recipe, it was fun to make and pretty good!  I changed a few things so here is how I made it:

4 oz of plain flour, sifted
a pinch of salt
4 oz bread crumbs
4 oz shredded suet - I used butter
1 teaspoon mixed spice - I used half teaspoon Jamaice Allspice
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz dark soft brown sugar
8 oz chopped dried figs ( I chopped in mini Cuisinart)
finely grated rind & the juice of one lemon
2 tablespoon milk
2 beaten eggs - I used 3 eggs
4 Tablespoons of golden syrup, plus more to serve

Cream the butter and sugar then add the flour, salt and breadcrumbs. Add the beaten eggs then the lemon rind and juice and the figs.  Beat well, the mixture should have a soft dropping consistency.  (This is when I added an extra egg as my mixture was not dropping!)  Put into a greased two-pint pudding basin, cover securely,  (I used two sheets of foil and 2 elastic bands) and steam for three hours. I also put the syrup in the basin before adding the mixture, then added more syrup to serve.

It was pretty good, served with some Birds custard.   Found that harder to make than proper custard and it was not as good in my view.........  but Alan loved it and that was what it was all about.

I know the ounce measures are tricky for my US friends, one day I will find a conversion site and link it.  I think the recipe is pretty forgiving if you want to have a go!